Along with rising tensions in relations with the United States, India has started to strengthen its friendship with China, putting America’s dominance in the region at risk. After five years, air travel routes between China and India have reopened.
On Monday, IndiGo flight 6E 1703 departed from Kolkata, India, carrying around 180 passengers and arrived in Guangzhou, a city in southern China. With this, direct flights between India and China have resumed after almost five years.
Flights between the two countries were suspended in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, they were not resumed due to tensions that arose after clashes between the two countries’ forces in a disputed Himalayan border area.
However, relations between the two countries have been gradually improving, and last year both nations signed a historic agreement regarding patrols along the disputed border.
In August this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China — his first visit to the country in seven years. In the same month, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi also visited India.
According to the Indian government, the resumption of flights will facilitate people-to-people contact and help “gradually normalize bilateral exchanges.”
